Mar. 28, 2014

Adam Brown

Written by

Press-Gazette Media

A judge’s ruling in a Brown County case last week offers another example of the line that police walk in balancing civil rights and the safety of themselves and others.

U.S. District Judge William Griesbach dismissed a lawsuit that claimed Brown County and two sheriff’s deputies violated Adam Brown’s Fourth Amendment rights during a 2006 incident in which Brown was killed after pointing a shotgun at a deputy. Brown’s estate had claimed that the county, Sgt. Tim Thomas and Deputy Matthew Secor acted improperly in the way they executed the warrant, claiming they essentially forced Brown to defend himself against a group of armed men.

The deputy’s decision to fire was not at issue in the lawsuit, according to the decision.

The officers, who included members of the county Drug Task Force, were looking for a teenage burglary suspect who had walked away from a work-release program. Officers — one undercover, one wearing a jacket marked “Police” — had burst in during an evening raid targeting a suspect believed to be staying with Brown, 21. Uniformed officers were behind them. They also were seeking a piece of stolen video-gaming equipment.

Griesbach’s decision explains the officers’ dilemma: If someone points a gun at police, someone gets shot. Usually, the only question is whether it’s the gunman or the officer.

“One cannot help but wonder if this sad sequence of events could have been avoided if Sgt. Thomas had simply knocked on Brown’s door, waited for him to answer, and calmly explained that he had a warrant to search his house for a (stolen) video game,” the judge wrote.

But, the judge continued ...

“Brown was unlawfully in possession of two firearms. Perhaps if Sgt. Thomas had not sought the assistance of the Task Force, it would have been his life that had been lost.”

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The issue of shootings involving police has been making news in Wisconsin recently, for reasons including:

• The 2012 killing of a Madison man by an officer who later was dismissed for reasons not related to the shooting.

• Continued attention to the fatal 2004 shooting of Michael Bell by Kenosha police. While the city admitted no wrongdoing by officers, it paid Bell’s survivors a $1.75 million settlement

• A bill by Assemblyman Garey Bies, R-Sister Bay, that would require investigations of police shootings to be led by officers from a department other than the one involved in the shooting. Some of the state’s largest departments, including Green Bay’s, currently investigate their own shootings. Leaders of those departments make the case that their agencies often are better staffed than other local departments, and are able to begin an investigation more quickly.

In the Green Bay area, families of several people shot in confrontations with police have filed claims in recent years. None has resulted in a judgment against a municipality or police department, though some small settlements have been paid.

The gun Brown pointed at Brown County deputies, it turned out, was not loaded. But officers had no way of knowing that at the time. Deputies later discovered a second shotgun. It was beneath Brown’s mattress.

Brown’s estate has 30 days to appeal Griesbach’s decision, said Samuel Hall Jr., a Milwaukee attorney who represented the county.

The lawsuit also questioned whether the department’s decision to involve officers from the county Drug Task Force was proper. The county argued that the decision was appropriate, saying that such officers are more experienced than non-DTF members in conducting difficult raids.